"Masaman" Beef Curry
So, I totally failed at my cooking blogging for the last couple weeks, here's an attempt to catch up.
We picked up some amazing looking tiny purple potatoes, and I wanted to try making a Masaman curry to highlight them. However, my curry attempts in the past have ended up somewhat tasty, but not necessarily anything like the Thai or Indian dish I was aiming for. This one worked out pretty well though. Lacking tamarind paste or Thai fish sauce, I tried using some good ol' Lea & Perrin's Worchestershire sauce, and it ended up tasting about where I wanted it.
As always, my proportions are approximate because I totally fake it as I go.
~10 oz. beef round steak, cut in 1/2 inch cubes
6-7 small purple potatoes, peeled and cubed.
1 can light coconut milk
1 sweet onion, chopped coarse
2 cups vegetable stock
Worchestershire sauce
1 cup of cashews
2 tablespoons of coconut oil
1 tablespoon grapeseed oil
kosher sea salt
Curry Paste:
half bulb of garlic, pressed
ground shrimp powder
garam masala spice blend
curry masala spice blend
cinnamon
tumeric
cumin
paprika
coriander
ground ginger
salt
First, I cut up the beef into cubes, salted it, and covered in a bowl with a mixture of coconut milk, about a tablespoon or worchestershire and some ground ginger. I stirred that together and set in the fridge to marinate for half an hour.
Next, I made the curry paste. I toasted 1 tablespoon ground shrimp in some tin foil in the oven at 375 F for 3 minutes, and then mixed that and the spices together. I'd estimate that I used about 2 parts garam masala, 3 parts curry masala, 2 parts cumin, 2 parts paprika and 1 part each cinnamon, tumeric, coriander, ginger and salt, making 3-4 tablespoons dried spices total. Once I stirred up the spices, I used the garlic press to put in around 6 bulbs of garlic in with the spices and mixed it up until formed a paste.
Note that a real Masaman curry paste would have had lemongrass, kefir lime leaves and a whole mess of other ingredients.
The next step was browning the meat. I melted the oil (coconut & grapeseed) in a heavy pot over medium heat and then browned the meat (taking it out of the marinade) for about 4 minutes, stirring. I kept the marinade set aside, and put the beef aside as well.
Next I sauteed the onions in the oil still in the pot. Once they softened, I added in the curry paste, and stirred it constantly until it mixed in with the onions and oil. I cooked the spices with the onions until the spices got aromatic, about another 4 minutes. At this point, I added in the marinade, and the rest of the can of coconut milk, along with the vegetable stock, and brought to a simmer.
Once it was simmering, I added the beef back in, and simmered for another 20 minutes, at which point the beef was tender. Then, I took the beef out with a slotted spoon and added the potatoes and cashews.
I simmered the potatoes and sauce for another 30-40 minutes, and added the beef back in for a couple minutes at the end, and served over brown rice.
In retrospect, I should have put the potatoes when I did the beef -- they needed to cook much longer than I expected, and the beef ended up a bit overdone because of it. Even with how long the potatoes cooked, they were still a bit on the crunchy side.
I'll update later with some other stuff I did recently, like fish tacos and pastelon (plantain lasagna).
We picked up some amazing looking tiny purple potatoes, and I wanted to try making a Masaman curry to highlight them. However, my curry attempts in the past have ended up somewhat tasty, but not necessarily anything like the Thai or Indian dish I was aiming for. This one worked out pretty well though. Lacking tamarind paste or Thai fish sauce, I tried using some good ol' Lea & Perrin's Worchestershire sauce, and it ended up tasting about where I wanted it.
As always, my proportions are approximate because I totally fake it as I go.
~10 oz. beef round steak, cut in 1/2 inch cubes
6-7 small purple potatoes, peeled and cubed.
1 can light coconut milk
1 sweet onion, chopped coarse
2 cups vegetable stock
Worchestershire sauce
1 cup of cashews
2 tablespoons of coconut oil
1 tablespoon grapeseed oil
kosher sea salt
Curry Paste:
half bulb of garlic, pressed
ground shrimp powder
garam masala spice blend
curry masala spice blend
cinnamon
tumeric
cumin
paprika
coriander
ground ginger
salt
First, I cut up the beef into cubes, salted it, and covered in a bowl with a mixture of coconut milk, about a tablespoon or worchestershire and some ground ginger. I stirred that together and set in the fridge to marinate for half an hour.
Next, I made the curry paste. I toasted 1 tablespoon ground shrimp in some tin foil in the oven at 375 F for 3 minutes, and then mixed that and the spices together. I'd estimate that I used about 2 parts garam masala, 3 parts curry masala, 2 parts cumin, 2 parts paprika and 1 part each cinnamon, tumeric, coriander, ginger and salt, making 3-4 tablespoons dried spices total. Once I stirred up the spices, I used the garlic press to put in around 6 bulbs of garlic in with the spices and mixed it up until formed a paste.
Note that a real Masaman curry paste would have had lemongrass, kefir lime leaves and a whole mess of other ingredients.
The next step was browning the meat. I melted the oil (coconut & grapeseed) in a heavy pot over medium heat and then browned the meat (taking it out of the marinade) for about 4 minutes, stirring. I kept the marinade set aside, and put the beef aside as well.
Next I sauteed the onions in the oil still in the pot. Once they softened, I added in the curry paste, and stirred it constantly until it mixed in with the onions and oil. I cooked the spices with the onions until the spices got aromatic, about another 4 minutes. At this point, I added in the marinade, and the rest of the can of coconut milk, along with the vegetable stock, and brought to a simmer.
Once it was simmering, I added the beef back in, and simmered for another 20 minutes, at which point the beef was tender. Then, I took the beef out with a slotted spoon and added the potatoes and cashews.
I simmered the potatoes and sauce for another 30-40 minutes, and added the beef back in for a couple minutes at the end, and served over brown rice.
In retrospect, I should have put the potatoes when I did the beef -- they needed to cook much longer than I expected, and the beef ended up a bit overdone because of it. Even with how long the potatoes cooked, they were still a bit on the crunchy side.
I'll update later with some other stuff I did recently, like fish tacos and pastelon (plantain lasagna).